On 21 August, Abu Mahdi Al-Mohandis, the commander of Hashd Al-Sha’abi (the Popular Mobilization Units or the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF)), accused the U.S. of moving Israeli drones to Azerbaijan to target Iraq and Iran in an interview with Lebanese television channel Al-Mayadin. Hashd Al-Sha’abi is an Iraqi state-sponsored umbrella organization consisting of primarily Shia Muslim groups fighting the Islamic state in Iraq (ISIL) 

“Trump is considering various ways to violate Iraq’s sovereignty and target Hashd Al-Sha’abi. We have accurate and confirmed information that this year, the Americans introduced four Israeli drones via Azerbaijan to operate within the U.S. fleet to carry out sorties that target the Iraqi military headquarters,” he said.

On 12 August, an ammunition warehouse in Baghdad exploded, killing one civilian and wounding 28 others. The base housed weapons both for the Iraqi federal police and the PMF, which was heavily involved in the fight against Isis alongside Iraq’s official security forces. PMF officials believed the explosion to be the result of a drone strike. A spokesman for the PMF said that intelligence information showed that the US had brought in four Israeli drones earlier this year to work as part of the US fleet in Iraq and target militia positions in the country.

Leyla Abdullayeva, spokesperson for the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded to this statement. “We regret to note that completely unreasonable information on the delivery of Israeli drones to Azerbaijan with the aim of attacking Iraq and Iran continues to be circulated in some foreign media resources. The Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan categorically refutes this information, which has no grounds and has a disinformation character,” she said.

Azerbaijan enjoys close relations with Israel. The strategic relationship includes cooperation in trade and security matters.